------Did i give her Herpes------

[KevinFranks]

Me and my girlfriend have been together for almost 7 years. I have genital herpes and she does not. we have talked about sex and decided that we will have unprotected sex after we get engaged, and so we did. We had sex last night and i noticed pain on my penis shaft, earlier this morning i noticed the herpes blisters forming but have not yet bursted. what are the chances she has got it? and for my second question i seem to be getting blisters alot. it has been one year since i contracted the virus, and had almost 6 Out breaks since, will this number decline or stay steady. And i have heard from many that taking Zovirax only makes it worse so i stopped is this true?

[diamondflow58]

you need to find out if she catched it then u need to take the next step in getting checked for anthing else that u found,but you should have told her

[gracefromHHP]

no, his gf should not taking it. there is no benefit in her taking it when she's not infected. also if she starts it now, all it will do is make it take longer until she finds out if she contracted hsv2 from him or not.

valtrex was not the first herpes antiviral either.

grace

[ohcalcutagirl]

hi, u should stay on the drug and anyone who told u it makes herpes worse is ill-informed, girl friend should probably start taking it
if u only take it when u get symptoms , then take it all the time and in your case probably for a couple years
the drug is acyclovir and yours is just a brand name. Valtrex was the first

[gracefromHHP]

has your gf ever been tested to know her own status?  

do you have hsv1 or hsv2 genitally?  do you take daily suppressive therapy to protect her?

no taking zovirax doesn't make it worse. not sure where you read that but obviously not a reputable place :(   Daily suppressive therapy with zovirax/acyclovir reduces ob's by 70% on average which helps to have less disruptions to your sex life. it also reduces viral shedding significantly - 80% on average- which means  less chance of exposing your partner to active herpes virus which can lead to infection for her.   as far as your ob's, 4-6/year is the average number of recurrences for hsv2. over time you might have a few more a year or a few less but  most people do not have a dramatic decrease in ob's over time.   also antivirals work best if taken as soon as you notice a recurrence so starting them now will help speed healing a day or two.

have you and your gf taken the time to read the free herpes handbook at www.westoverheights.com ever? it's a terrific resource for you both to help you make educated decisions about what precautions to take.

so did you potentially infect your gf? yes you did unfortunately. you shed the virus typically at least 24 hours prior to an obvious recurrence so odds are you were actively shedding the virus last night when you had sex. sometimes recurrences will sneak up on you a bit like this without much warning :(  At this point all you can do is let your gf know that you woke up with an obvious recurrence and should she notice any symptoms within the next 2-20 days, she should be seen promptly for proper testing and treatment.

keep asking questions :)  Hopefully we can help clear up any misinformation you've gotten up until now and help educate you and your partner better so you can protect her better in the future if she didn't contract hsv2 from you at this point.

grace